Finite element design study of a bladed flat rotating disk to simulate cracking in a typical turbine disk: Part II

Health management development for advanced propulsion systems and ultrasafe engine technologies continues to be among the NASA’s aviation safety program goals. Health management attempts to predict, detect, and prevent safetysignificant propulsion malfunctions. The primary goal is to minimize the number of propulsion system faults that leads or contribute to civil aircraft accidents. Health monitoring of essential and key components in aircraft engines such as rotors continues to interest engine makers and aviation safety government institutions to improve safety and to lower maintenance costs. Having reliable diagnostic tools for damage detection and health monitoring of rotating components is important to maintain engine safety and reliability. This paper presents finite element analyses as a means to study the durability issues of a propulsion component such as a rotor disk. The analyses are carried out under representative engine loading conditions to further investigate the application, the performance, and the functionality of a crack detection system. Rotational speeds in the range of 2000 to 10000 rpm are used. Several key design parameters such as center of mass shift, induced cracks that ranged in length from a minimum of 0.508 cm (0.2 inches) to a maximum of 5.08 cm (2.0 inches), attachment blades and typical holes within the disk are all being explored to study their influence on the crack detection system performance. Results showing relevant influence of these parameters on the performance of the disk and the crack detection systems are presented.